Warriors guard Monta Ellis briefly considered his team's 104-92 loss to Phoenix on Monday night, and then wrapped it up into one accurate and concise thought:

"We played terrible," Ellis said.

And just like that, all of the good cheer radiating from the Warriors' victory over Chicago on Saturday was erased.

Just two nights after their most impressive victory of the season, the Warriors were picked apart by Phoenix in front of 18,002 dismayed fans at Oracle Arena. Point guard Steve Nash had 14 points and 15 assists, and often made the Warriors look like a shadow of the team we've seen since New Year's.

"It's embarrassing for our fans that we came out and played the way we played," Ellis said. "We've played great the past few games, and then we came out and put up a performance like this."

The Warriors (22-28) had won three in a row to give hope to co-owner Joe Lacob's goal of being above .500 before the All-Star break. Phoenix (24-25) hadn't beaten a Western Conference team on the road since wins Dec. 19 at Oklahoma City and Dec. 2 in Oakland.

But the Suns looked like the team with momentum. They nearly doubled up the Warriors in the first quarter, building a 33-17 lead, and then led by as many as 23 points in the second half.

The Warriors eventually went to a zone defense that caused Phoenix fits in the second half. The Suns missed eight consecutive field-goal attempts, and the Warriors went on an 11-0 run to trim their deficit to 93-88 with 4:42 remaining.

Channing Frye made two long jumpers and Nash added a three-pointer sandwiched around two poor outside shots by the Warriors, and the fans exited en masse with the Warriors trailing 101-88.

"It's very disappointing," Warriors head coach Keith Smart said. Phoenix "changed everything we had done the past several games."

The Warriors won the rebound game 50-41, scored more fast-break points and earned six more free-throw attempts than the Suns. Those are the usual barometers of success for the Warriors, but they usually shoot quite a bit better than 2-for-18 from three-point range.

Curry was 0-for-6, Ellis was 1-for-3, and Dorell Wright was 0-for-4 in failing to reach double-digit scoring for the first time since Dec. 20 against Houston.

"I'll live and die with our main shooters taking those shots, but it wasn't our night," Lee said. "We couldn't keep the momentum from Saturday, and that's very, very disappointing."